AnonyMouse_11485 Posted June 30, 2013 Posted June 30, 2013 Next year I've got a child joining my reception class who was apparently assessed a year ago as having a reading age of ten. Now, first of all I need to get a bit more detail about this from his mum - who assessed him, what assessment / test did they use etc.... but beyond that I was just wondering about our experiences of this in your classes - any good ideas? Things to bear in mind? He visited our class last week for a teddy bear's picnic and his teddy was the Enormous Crocodile and we had a lovely chat about Roald Dahl books! My concerns are really what he can do during the daily Letters and Sounds session (not sure how his writing is, so maybe that's an avenue I can explore) and how to find books that are challenging him on a reading level - vocabulary and comprehension etc, but are contextually appropriate for his young age. Roald Dahl does seem a good place to start - do you have any other authors you could recommend? I'm looking forward to it, and think I'll find ways to extend his reading, but thought it would be an interesting 'virtual staff room' chat with all you lovely people! Any thoughts or opinions?
Guest Posted June 30, 2013 Posted June 30, 2013 I had a child leave preschool a year along who was reading oxford reading tree stage 7. Had good sound knowledge but fine motor control neeeded support. Reading was his interest but everything else was inline with age.
AnonyMouse_26037 Posted June 30, 2013 Posted June 30, 2013 I had a very able reader this year. For books we used those from the Y1/2 classroom - we have some that are structured like a reading scheme but have different characters/content etc. Any we were unsure about for him content wise I'd check out with his mum beforehand and if she was happy we let him have them. His comprehension was fairly good but this is something we have done further work on this year. Also, we have done lots on reading expressively and are working on him getting an overall sense of context. He just 'reads' the words and doesn't really think about what they mean so if he mis-reads one he carries on oblivious. Letters and sounds was an interesting one. Mum was quite keen for him not to be too 'different' from everyone else so I kept him with my main group. Actually I found it was very beneficial for him - his writing is nowhere near his reading level and it has been really valuable to have all the segmenting practice that he got from L&S sessions as well as learning the digraphs. L&S work for him has focused largely on writing. Also (no matter what I feel about it) the Y1 phonics check still exists and at the start of the year this child was one who would have been a good reader but totally unable to pass this. He's also really enjoyed the full nonsense/word play aspect of L&S - he can be rather a serious little boy.
Guest Posted June 30, 2013 Posted June 30, 2013 I have a child in my reception class like this who is reading and understanding texts far beyond her years. I assessed her at the beginning of the year not using any formal tests just with hearing her read a variety of texts to establish her strategies and understanding and then I placed her on turquoise book band level. I heard her read individually from the start of the year rather than in groups as I do with the rest of the class. She had a basic understanding of phonics but didn't use it in her reading as she had learnt all her words by sight so she still did phonics with the rest of the class. She might be ahead with reading but in every other way, she was very much a four year old and socially to begin with we felt she needed to be with the rest of the class for phonics. My TA worked with her 1-1 on a daily basis to whip through phase 3 and 4 and she now does phase 5 with key stage 1 children in letters and sounds time. At the start of the year this little girl was pretty socially isolated as she loves books to the detriment of all other activity and in child initiated time she would just take herself off to the reading corner and just work her way through reading all our books. She rarely interacted with others. As reading as a skill was already very much under her belt, we focused instead on nurturing her social and play skills. The problem we have is in finding texts that challenge her but that are appropriate for age ( she's still 4 until August!) I imagine you will have the same issue. She has latched onto the daisy meadows fairy books which are not too complex in plot is there a similar range that would appeal to boys? Nick sharratt does some paperbacks for younger children and there's also the flat stanley books which might appeal. Deb Deb
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